Medication errors are mistakes that happen as a result of prescription, description, dispensing, and administration of medication. These errors have caused serious effects on a patient’s health. There are some ways that medication errors can be prevented. For example, verification of orders, being aware of look-alikes and sound-alikes, involving the patient, educating the medical staff, improving packaging, and training the patient about medication safety. The Socratic method of problem-solving is an excellent means of promoting and developing a form of critical analysis. This method involves five major steps. The first step is a wonder, followed by hypothesis, refutation, cross-examination, acceptance of rejecting the hypothesis, and finally, action.
The medical staff comprises doctors, registered nurses, therapists, and at times social workers who can be part of the medical staff. Medical staff education can be done in different ways to improve efficiency on medication. Some of the ways that the medication staff can be educated include incorporation of interaction and technology, evaluation of a program’s effectiveness. In Socratic’s model, the first step is the wonder steps associated with some questions. In this method of minimizing medication errors, questions like ‘will this approach be beneficial to the patients?’, ‘how effective is this approach?’, or ‘how long will this approach take?’ may arise. Socrates’ questioning method is important because it enables one to think critically about any approach they are willing to take to come up with a solution.
Naylor, R. (2002). Medication errors. Abingdon, U.K.: Radcliffe Medical Press.
This book talks about the benefits of medical staff education. The main benefits that are highlighted in this book include knowledge, acquiring problem-solving techniques, enhancement of practice image, and building morale. The book also narrows down the benefits of medical staff training to how they can lead to the reduction of medication errors. To begin with knowledge, the medical staff for let’s say nurses, acquire technological knowledge that is required to assess different diseases for the administration of the right medicine. The building of morale encourages them to feel valued which increases their productivity in the works that they do for example in diagnosing and administering medical prescriptions. Enhancement of image practice leads to satisfaction of the patients which makes them want to go back anytime they have any illnesses. From this approach, we can go to the next step of the Socratic method of problem-solving which is the hypothesis and come up with the hypothesis that medical staff education is important for minimizing medication errors.
Improving medical packaging is important to minimize medication errors. It is important to identify some questions that can arise from this approach such as ‘what considerations can I use to package this type of medicine?’, what is the advantage of improving medical packaging?’ etc. Improving packaging has different considerations that can be put in place like cost, compatibility, presentation of over the counter, convenience and safety concerns.
Conn, V., Ruppar, T., Chan, K., Dunbar-Jacob, J., Pepper, G., & De Geest, S. (2014). Packaging interventions to increase medication adherence: systematic review and meta-analysis. Current Medical Research and Opinion, 31(1), 145-160. doi: 10.1185/03007995.2014.978939.
This journal elaborates the reason s and importance of packaging medicine. It explains how good packaging provides a mechanism for patients to monitor themselves in medication consumption. It also highlights the different times of the day when medications should be consumed. Improved packaging interventions are important because they involve a third party. In other words, it involves a patient’s caregiver monitoring their patient’s dose administration.
U.S. Govt. Print. Off. (1974). Nursing home care in the United States.
This book continues to give other importance of improved packaging. The main focus of this book is pollution. Packaging of medication should be done in a way that the medicinal contents do not come into any form of chemical contaminants. The book emphasizes the importance of keeping medication away from any form of physical and chemical contamination. This develops our hypothesis that improved packaging is an important facet in preventing medication errors.
Lastly, patient medication safety training is important in reducing medication errors. In what circumstances can training medication training be done? What are the advantages of patient medication safety? These are some of the questions that can arise from this intervention. This training can be done to a patient in different ways. For example, the patient can be taught more about the administration of their medication and some of the diseases that it cures. They may also be taught the dangers of sharing the medication with other patients who might suffer from the same symptoms as they had. They can also be taught about the side effects of the medication administered and how to deal with them when they occur.
Panesar, S., Carson-Stevens, A., Salvilla, S., & Sheikh, A. (2014). Patient Safety and Healthcare Improvement at a Glance. Hoboken: Wiley.
This book talks about the advantages of patient medication safety training. It highpoints on importance such as prevention of adverse reactions and overdose and also points out minimizing infections or injuries. A patient’s medication safety training is also important in ensuring that the patient takes the right amount of medicine at the right time. This is because some medications require strict adherence to administration for them to work effectively. It is also important for a patient to clarify with their health giver in case they are uncertain about some medications to prevent wrong medication intake, therefore, developing the hypothesis that patient’s medication safety training reduces medication errors.
In conclusion, medication errors are common and they can be easily prevented by the use of different interventions. It is important to educate the medical staff on how to assess and diagnose a patient with the right medication. It is also important to improve medication packaging to reduce medication errors in intake. These packages show the time and amount that medication should be taken. Patient medication safety training is important to reduce health risks such as overdose and misuse.
References
Naylor, R. (2002). Medication errors. Abingdon, U.K.: Radcliffe Medical Press.
Conn, V., Ruppar, T., Chan, K., Dunbar-Jacob, J., Pepper, G., & De Geest, S. (2014). Packaging interventions to increase medication adherence: systematic review and meta-analysis. Current Medical Research and Opinion, 31(1), 145-160. doi: 10.1185/03007995.2014.978939.
Panesar, S., Carson-Stevens, A., Salvilla, S., & Sheikh, A. (2014). Patient Safety and Healthcare Improvement at a Glance. Hoboken: Wiley
U.S. Govt. Print. Off. (1974). Nursing home care in the United States.
write